Engine.



WILBUR L..SHEPARD, OF WEST HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

ENGINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. is, rare.

Application filed March 25, 1916. Serial No. 86,698.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILBUR L. SHEPARD, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of West Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and Improved Engine, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates more especially to the class of engines more commonly known as explosive or gas engines, and an object of my invention, among others, is to provide Fig. 2 is a view in vertical section on plane denoted by dotted line 22 of Fig. 1-, one side being broken off.

In the accompanying drawings the numeral 5 indicates the lower part of a crank casing and 6 the upper part thereof, which parts constitute the support for the engine, the upper part being chambered in any common and well known manner for the circulation of a cooling fluid and being also formed with .walls constituting cylinders 7-8 in which pistons 9-10 are mounted to reciprocate and which are connected to cranks 11-12 of a crank shaft 13 rotatably mounted in the frame or casing. The construction of the device herein illustrated and described need not be explained in detail as it ma be of any old and well knownform.

e fluids that are fired within the cylinders are admitted thereto through passages from a carbureter 14 controlled by valves 15 all of any suitable and ordinary construction. The casing parts 5 and 6 are formed to provide a chamber 16 located between the cylinders and to which the exhaust therefrom is conducted through an exhaust chamber 17, in the construction herein shown common to all of the cylinders, two being comprised in the present device. It will be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to a single exhaust chamber common to all of the cylinders nor to any specified number of cylinders, as these features may be varied to any desired degree. The

valves 15, controlling the flow or discharge from the combustion chambers 18 at the upper ends of the cylinders, are operated as by means of valve levers'19 pivotally mounted on the case and loosely connected with valve stems 20 at their upper ends and operated by cams 21 at their lower ends. Said cams are preferably secured to gears 22 mounted upon short shafts extending from the frame and meshing with pinions 23 secured to the crank shaft 13. The engine herein shown being of the four cycle type, the gears and pinions are So arranged as to impart a whole rotation to the gears at every other complete r0- tation of the pinions so that the valves 15 will be operated at every fourth movement of the pistons.

An impetus wheel 24 is secured to the crank shaft 13 within the chamber 16, this wheel being provided at its periphery with buckets 25 located in proximity to the mouth of an exhaust nozzle 26 comprising the outlet from the exhaust chamber 17. This exhaust nozzle is elongated having a comparatively narrow slot comprising its mouth, said slot extending for substantially the whole width of the impetus wheel and being so located that the exhaust from the chamber 17 will be directed squarely against the buckets 25 thus giving impetus to the wheel 24, thereby transmitting force to the crank shaft and thus increasing the power of the engine to a great extent. The force of the exhaust is thus utilized in driving the engine and is substantially used up wlthin the chamber 16 so that the latter incidently becomes a muflier. The exhaust opening 27 from the chamber 16 aflordsan'outlet for the expended gases.

I have found by extended experiment that the gases generated by firing an explosive mixture, in order to attain substantial efficiency, must be permitted to act upon the impetus wheel as quickly as possible after leaving the combustion chambers and without traversing passages of any length, and I have, therefore, provided a casing in which the combustion chambers, exhaust chamber,

and' the chamber containing the impetus Wheel lie close together, being divided simply by walls, through which openings are formed so that the gases are admitted directly from one chamber into the next succeeding chamber. The wall from the exhaust chamber to the impetus wheel is formed with lips constituting the nozzle 26 that .are employed to direct the stream squarely against the walls of the buckets of the impetus wheel.

The gases, after they have exerted all the force possible upon the pistons, are immediately and directly introduced into the exhaust chamber, with practically, at this point, all of the force which they had when the left the combustion chambers.

gtill continuing to expand within the exhaust.chamber 17., they pass through the lipped wall of the exhaust chamber, which wall constitutes the nozzle, directly and squarely against the walls of the buckets of the impetus wheel upon which they act with practically undnninished force from that which they contained when leaving the combustion chamber.

While I have shown and described herein an engine, the construction of which produces satisfactory results, this may be departed from to a greater or lesser degree and yet be within the spirit and intent of the invention.

I claim 1. In combination in an engine, a case comprising in its structure a plural number of cylinders and a central chamber, a crank shaft mounted in the case and extending through said chamber, a piston locatedtin each cylinder and operatively connected with the crank shaft, a assage extending across the ends of saidcy inders and across said chamber, an opening from said passage directly into said chamber, and an impetus wheel mounted on the crank shaft and with its upper edge adjacent to said opening.

2. In combination in an engine, a case comprising a plural number of cylinders and a chamber located between said cylinders, a

passage extending across the end of the case over said cylinders and chamber, said passage being divided into combustion cham and a central chamber located between said I cylinders, a crank shaft mounted in the case and extending across said .central chamber, a passage extending across the ends of the cylinders and said central chamber, the center of said passage comprising an exhaust chamber, a nozzle opening from said exhaust chamber into said central chamber, and an impetus wheel mounted on the crank shaft within said central chamber and with its periphery adjacent to the mouth of said exhaust nozzle.

WILBUR L. SHEPARD. 

